The story of American Christianity and American capitalism, contends Joseph P. Slaughter in this new book, tells an entire history of religious engagement in American life and illustrates the lasting question of how Christians interact with the culture around them. Then and now, Christians generally lean into one of three categories — separation, fight/reform, or engage/redeem — of engagement. Slaughter sees these same models embodied in the “Christian Business Enterprises” of the early American period. This creates layers, because even though “we can glimpse the ways that businesses ‘infused with religion’ were at the very center of this dynamic period of American history,” those businesses represent varied and contrasting approaches that illuminate the history of the nation itself. Read on for a Christian review of “Faith in Markets”.
Review by Aaron Cline Hanbury